My name is Chris, and I am enthusiastic about presenting this project that truly is, a labor of love. Originally established as a ROM Hack, Pokemon: Dissension has made it's way into the RMXP format exploring the virtually infinite design space that game design has to offer under the name Pokemon: Lost Legends. I am a designer and a student in Graphic Communications Management. Design is what I do and this project served as a launching point on many levels and still proves to be a project that continues to evolve and grow. I hope you all have enjoyed the journey so far and I would love for you to continue it with me as this game develops!

-Worldslayer

WELCOME TO KOEN

Silently midst the tallest peak at the heart of Koen, lie the sacred Pillars of Koen. Throne to the ancient kings of the past, these pillars reached endlessly into the sky, offering worship to the sacred beasts which protected the land.

Since the time of it's creation, the land of Koen has existed as three distinguished kingdoms. To each kingdom, the Pokemon God Arceus bestowed a legendary guardian. Over time, three powerful kings rose to command these kingdoms, each with a guardian by their side. The mighty King Ka conquered with Entei at his side. The caring King Mizu spread his love with Suicune at his side. The enigmatic King Sora saw truth and justice throughout his kingdom with Raikou by his side.

For many years that followed, the land of Koen prospered under it's three kings. As the land prospered, they mysteriously reached further and further into the heavens.

The three guardians laid dormant, only to rise when their presence was needed. Before the guardians set off to roam the lands in search of a haven to rest within, they bestowed a single Orb upon each of the three kings. They were told that if all was lost, the Orbs would release a great power when they were placed together. King Mizu and King Sora took to safeguarding the Orbs and their power, however, the greedy King Ka had other plans. King Ka sought the power that would be created when all three Orbs met. He began a violent and merciless campaign to take over the kingdoms of Koen and reign supreme.

After walking a path filled with bloodshed and pain, King Ka succeeded in obtaining the two Orbs held by the now defeated Kings Mizu and Sora. He unleashed the great power the guardians had spoken of without hesitation. A mysterious portal was created by the Orbs, and King Ka began to plot his conquering of the land beyond the strange gateway. However, before the greedy king could make any advances on his plan, the pillars began to crumble and the land of Koen was shrouded in darkness. The portal had unleashed an even greater evil than the mighty king, and the shadows swept across the land, devouring King Ka's army and destroying the land of Koen.

All hope seemed lost, when suddenly, the great guardians awoke from their eternal slumber. Together, they combined strengths to create a power strong enough to subdue the great darkness that had spread over Koen. As the dust cleared, no one could recognize the land as Koen any more. What was once a prosperous land was now a barren wasteland. The mighty King Ka had fallen, his armies defeated. The guardians took possession the Orbs, fearing that an even worse fate could be created if they fell into the hands of man, and man's greed, ever again. They fled with the Orbs, making sure they remained hidden. Making sure they remained safe.

Centuries passed, and from the ashes, Koen rose once again as a land of peace and prosperity. The three great kingdoms were no more, and in their place was a land filled with unity. Few people know of Koen's past. The only memories that are left of the once great land lie in the ruins of it's ancient civilizations. Ruins which hold the deep, dark secrets of Koen's past...

A STORY UNTOLD

To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory...

Over centuries, Koen's inhabitants have watched the ancient pillars reach to the heavens as the land prospered. The site has become a destination for pilgrims seeking wisdom from the ancient whispers that fill the air at the top of the world. It is said that these whispers are from from the gods themselves and to understand them will reveal the secrets of life.

Nestled on a tiny northern island, Skyler and Kelly have grown up in the quite town of Yoro, home of the famous research facility of Professor Tilia, an young and zestful scientist with a soft spot for the two.

You are an aid to Professor Tilia and her legendary Pokehabitat. Your duties include the maintenance of the grounds and helping Tilia with her gear in the field. Daydreams prove distracting as you imagine a life of adventure and pokemon battles.

Even though the weather is stormy, town of Odale Grove remains as quaint as it would on any other night, and the only sounds of the thunder seem like a distant memory while you sleep. But one clap of thunder seems louder than the rest, and you snap awake to see the worried face of your grandmother staring at you. As you rub the sleep from your eyes, you are told that Professor Tilia needs your presence urgently. Something must be wrong for the Professor to call at this hour. You jump out of bed, rushing as quickly as your legs will carry you to the laboratory you've always known and loved. You can hardly see the lab past the swarm of police officers. Your worst fears are realized when you manage to over hear one of the officers. Professor Tilia's lab has been broken in to!

The Professor tells you that you are only one with the knowledge and expertise to guide the police officers though the vast Pokehabitat. But you can't do this alone. You are handed a Pokemon to help protect you as you hunt for the culprits. You look down at the red and white sphere with both pride, and fear. Tonight, you are no longer an aid. Tonight marks the night of all nights. The night you will be a Pokemon Trainer.

FEATURES

A Whole New World - Explore the ancient Region of Koen, and discover it's secrets.

Exciting Adventures - Take part in action packed adventures and overcome great obstacles. Enjoy a more exciting, more open world of Pokémon.

Key Items - Use new key items to complete tasks, explore new locations, and overcome obstacles.

Meet New Friends - Build new friendships as you journey through the land! Your new friends will not only ask for help, but offer help in return.

Special Events - Begin the hunt for special and rare events to obtain rare items and Pokémon.

Action Based Plot - What you say and do decides your ultimate fate. Experience various twists and turns throughout your adventures.

Achievements - Collect achievements during the course of your journey.

Welcome to the Development Corner. In this section, you will find little blogs about the development process behind the game. With each official update, this section will be updated with official screenshots or development screenshots and a little information about what is and has gone on while developing certain parts of Pillars of Destiny.

Relaunch

Today I present you with the Pokemon: Pillars of Destiny relaunch, and I am excited to show you a few new things that have found their way into the development stages of the game, and answers any questions you may have. But first, let me go over a bit of information for this update and see if I cannot tackle and questions and concerns some of you may have in this little tidbit. We have both some developmental concepts returning as well as new ones arising. So let's get to it!

The Story

Some of you may recognize the back story as well as the plot line here, it was something I never really scratched entirely and instead just cut out this bit of information in the presentation thread. It was information I really felt that the players would need to explore and get to discover for themselves rather than having me spoil it before hand. It is hard to find a balance of the proper amount of information you give your viewers. You never want to give them too much information, but you want to make sure there is enough to grab their attention and keep them interested. I still do not feel that I have found that balance, but I wanted to provide future players with enough information to let them know what this game is about. So please welcome back the story for me, and I hope you all enjoy it and that it does not give everything away out of the gate. The story however, is not the only returning piece of development.

Skyler

Eli is no more. Skyler has been the fundamental male protagonist during this games development, and he was switched out for Eli for a few reasons that I ultimately did not feel were justified. Skyler is a pretty typical male protagonist you see in a lot of aspiring games, the young male with spiked/messy hair and a bandanna is fairly typical. He was cut to make room for the geeky and awkward Eli after a fair amount of consideration. I felt that Skyler was just a character players would expect to see in the game without ever needing to know the story. As I worked on developing Eli in my style guide, he slowly became a character that was not necessarily ready to be in the spotlight and was not interesting enough for a general audience to warrant a protagonist role. Skyler, however typical he may be, is a key figure in this game as it has evolved over the years and his association with the game has led to his reintroduction.

So those are some things returning to Pillars of Destiny. Now I am excited to go over some long awaited (at least for me) features of the game, that will help set the game apart from others, with the goal of providing a unique player experience. I will try to clear up any questions and comments you may have below, and I encourage you to post any questions I may not have answered.

Features

Something I have failed to share over the course of the games development are features. I have always had a lot of concepts and ideas written down over the years, and the pages with them are almost as abundant as the pages in my sketch book I have used for everything else combined, such as maps, character sketches, style designed etc. The problem was that I have had so many ideas and features I want to include, but it realistically cannot all make it in, and I have spent a good amount of time trying to find out what executions would be best suited for a unique playing experience but also be practical for development. So with all that being said, let's dive in shall we?

A Whole New World
Pokemon: Pillars of Destiny features a vast world filled with different environments for you to explore. Koen will be the only region within the game, and the decision was ultimately made to allow the player to have a single region to focus on, and since it is a new region I wanted them to be able to fully explore and appreciate this new region for what it is. Multiple regions also meant I was trying to find a healthy balance of plot and world space to fill in such a way that the story was capable of covering all of the regions during game play. One region means players will be able to focus on the new world and the plot in great detail, providing a rich play experience.

Pillars of Destiny will include a separate, but limited, realm for the players to explore.

Exciting Adventures
The plot is a great way to bring your player into your world however, it is not the only way. Pillars of Destiny is a very story driven game and there are many stories to tell. Collecting badges and conquering the Elite Four is fun, and it is indeed your goal, but it is not the focal point of the game. Players will be able to take part in side quests, giving them access to new areas in the region, rare items and Pokemon, and an opportunity to experience another feature within the games, friendships.

Pokemon: Pillars of Destiny brings story driven adventure to the Pokemon world to provide a fantastic player experience and offer replay ability that players can enjoy.

Key Items
This is a feature that is often discussed within the community, and often for good reasons. HMs were something that never made sense to me, they were very narrow moves that would allow you to get past an obstacle yet only certain Pokemon could use them. HMs are now Key Items, and no longer are they moves that take up space in your teams move sets. Some of these Key Items are very rare and can be used over and over again, while others are usable only once before needing to be replenished. Pokemon can learn moves that were once HMs alleviating the need for some of the items, but these moves are learned through leveling or a Move Tutor.

Meet New Friends
As a means of building onto the adventure in Pillars of Destiny, and pushing story driven game play a bit further, players will come across a number of NPCs who will befriend them during their journey. These NPCs are far more than the likes of Eusine, Steven, Lucas, or Dawn. Friends will offer to follow you on your journey or ask for help from time to time. They may even go on dates with you!

What Friends will do is certainly limited for developmental reasons, however they aim to provide the player with a nice break from classic game play as well as provide the player with access to new adventures. Some of these NPCs are hidden, and will need to be hunted down in order to befriend, and each one offers the player a unique benefit to having them along for an adventure!

Special Events
There are a number of unique events that are only available under certain circumstances. These event can prove challenging to find but are certainly worth it. Some of the events are time sensitive and can only be found during certain parts of the day, week, month or even year. Others are going to require the player to solve a puzzle or locate something prior to becoming active. These events will help the player achieve certain goals, as well as obtain rare items and Pokemon.

Action Based Plot
During the course of the main plot, players will be provided with branching choices. These choices will effect how the story evolves. While limited in overall scope, these decisions are diverse enough for the player to experience twists and turns throughout the plot that will ultimately allow them to experience something new with a second, third, or even fourth play through.

Achievements
A seemingly small feature, included for those that like to hunt for things. Achievements will record mile markers players have reached throughout the game and be recorded in the Trainer Card menu. Pokemon are no longer the only thing you hunt down, achievements will also help unlock Friend NPCs and special events.

Downloadable Content
There are a number of features, maps, and events I have cut through development for various reasons. DLC aims to provide players with a means to experience new things with Pillars of Destiny, and experience some of the content cut through the course of development, as well as new in-game expansion material.

There you have it, the Pokemon: Pillars of Destiny relaunch and overview update! I hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

I'm not really sure why you've chosen to post this right now. What do we have to go at? There's a premise and a couple of character names, but other than that, it's empty. There's not enough to be able to speculate about what's in the game, and while it's well laid-out, the concept of having "ancient pillars" is hardly revolutionary, and sending teenage trainers off to travel around is the tried and tested formula.

I'm not really sure why you've chosen to post this right now. What do we have to go at? There's a premise and a couple of character names, but other than that, it's empty. There's not enough to be able to speculate about what's in the game, and while it's well laid-out, the concept of having "ancient pillars" is hardly revolutionary, and sending teenage trainers off to travel around is the tried and tested formula.

It feels like you've posted this prematurely. We need more to go at.

Also, I'm curious as to how my name's ended up in the credits?

If I wanted to give you the full synopsis, I would have written it and saved you each and every minute you would spend actually playing through and discovering the plot yourself. 'grats champ. PM me if you want me to save you some time, or you can be left to assume and let your ideas flow and maybe even intrigue yourself into playing to see what the mystery is about.

It is a game set in a Pokemon world, if you want revolutionary, you should be looking somewhere else, 'specially when you are basing it off the fact that the plot has not been handed to you on a silver platter.

__________________

SMEARGLE SOLO CHALLENGEHARDCORE EDITIONTo vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory...Voted Best Game Designer 2011 on PC

If I wanted to give you the full synopsis, I would have written it and saved you each and every minute you would spend actually playing through and discovering the plot yourself. 'grats champ. PM me if you want me to save you some time, or you can be left to assume and let your ideas flow and maybe even intrigue yourself into playing to see what the mystery is about.

It is a game set in a Pokemon world, if you want revolutionary, you should be looking somewhere else, 'specially when you are basing it off the fact that the plot has not been handed to you on a silver platter.

I completely agree. This is the beginners showcase, after all, so it doesn't need to have screenshots.
On the other hand, if it did have screenshots and nothing else, then people wouldn't complain. I've never revealed anything about the storyline of XENOTIME and no one had ever complained because I have screens. It's annoying.

If I wanted to give you the full synopsis, I would have written it and saved you each and every minute you would spend actually playing through and discovering the plot yourself. 'grats champ. PM me if you want me to save you some time, or you can be left to assume and let your ideas flow and maybe even intrigue yourself into playing to see what the mystery is about.

It is a game set in a Pokemon world, if you want revolutionary, you should be looking somewhere else, 'specially when you are basing it off the fact that the plot has not been handed to you on a silver platter.

I'm basing it off what you've put in this thread, yes, which is a few lines about the pillars, essentially. You've tagged it as an [Idea], so why post the thread if you aren't going to tell us about it? It's not as if the game is here to play so we can learn about it for ourselves. As I thought I said in my first message, I feel like this thread has been posted too early. There's nothing to comment on.

And, Peeky, if there are screenshots, there's something tangible about the game to comment on. I didn't mean to offend anyone. It's just frustrating when there's an idea that's clearly had a lot of thought put into it, and all you actually post is a few paragraphs of things we've seen before.

I'm basing it off what you've put in this thread, yes, which is a few lines about the pillars, essentially. You've tagged it as an [Idea], so why post the thread if you aren't going to tell us about it? It's not as if the game is here to play so we can learn about it for ourselves. As I thought I said in my first message, I feel like this thread has been posted too early. There's nothing to comment on.

And, Peeky, if there are screenshots, there's something tangible about the game to comment on. I didn't mean to offend anyone. It's just frustrating when there's an idea that's clearly had a lot of thought put into it, and all you actually post is a few paragraphs of things we've seen before.

Like I said, the rest is up to you to speculate until you see some screens. It is tagged as an [Idea] because of the rules limitations. I like people to cognitively speculate on story rather than mindlessly gawk at screens, however I understand that people like visual candy, it is a matter of finding balance for both and for that reason, I have not posted an initial starting screen for anyone.

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SMEARGLE SOLO CHALLENGEHARDCORE EDITIONTo vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory...Voted Best Game Designer 2011 on PC

Like I said, the rest is up to you to speculate until you see some screens. It is tagged as an [Idea] because of the rules limitations. I like people to cognitively speculate on story rather than mindlessly gawk at screens, however I understand that people like visual candy, it is a matter of finding balance for both and for that reason, I have not posted an initial starting screen for anyone.

Like I said, you haven't given us enough information about the plot or the characters for us to reasonably speculate, either.

A note: I find it difficult reading the white on white altough I can see easy enough by highlighting it.

Whilst I don't mind the small synopsis and am intrigued by these "pillars" there's a lot that I feel needs to be said (although I may have missed it). I would like to know whether fakemon will be included or not, whether your using an old regional dex or creating a new one and if you have any unique/new game mechanics planned.

So is this continuing from your progress on pokémon lost legends or is this a completely scratch project?

Scratch. I have carried over Linden and Kelly from the project though, and for the sake of fun, Linden is from the region of Koen, which you will only hear about in plot just for kicks :)

EDIT

Pretty sure i also fixed the white on white issue, sorry about that. Let me know if you are still having issues seeing the layout.

Developed by ЩѻƦḽᶑʂḽдƴƹƦ™ for RMXP

DEVELOPMENT CORNER

Welcome to the Development Corner. In this section, you will find little blogs about the development process behind the game. With each official update, this section will be updated with official screenshots or development screenshots and a little information about what is and has gone on while developing certain parts of Pillars of Destiny.

Return on Investment

It is not easy coming up with a flow of design that avoids diminishing returns. Often times, an idea will start out broad and when execution begins it often will start funneling into a more refined and precise idea. While well laid out ideas are what we want, they can often times stifle a lot of the creativity that led to such an idea in the first place. So where to we find the balance?

When Pillars of Destiny started to take fruition, I had an idea of what I wanted things to look like and how I wanted the player to be able to interact with every bit of surrounding. As development began, the idea was beginning to dither. The main issue with developing a highly interactive environment was that in order for my original idea to work, the world had to be a free form world where players could go wherever and do whatever without many restriction. Pillars of Destiny is a Pokemon fan game and the play-style has to match that and that is how I wanted it to be. So with a free form world out of the design window it was time to figure out how to allos the player to interact and explore without things feeling out of place.

The easiest place to start is with NPC's and that is by no means a secret. Pillars of Destiny allows the player to interact with many people who encourage exploration and quest based rewards. they may not be your dungeon delving or slashing expeditions, but they help the player discover new locations, solve challenging puzzles and reward them by doing so.

Meet Lenny, he runs a little fruit stand out of his mobile home which is parked just outside of Ashvale. Normally he is delighted to show off his merchandise and make a deal, but right now, he has lost not only his motivation to sell but also his cool glass of Lemonade. While setting up shop for the morning, he has misplaced his beverage and if you would be so kind as to find it for him he would greatly appreciate it.

NPC's are a nice, convenient way to give a player a return on their investment though the use of little favors and quests which offer rewards for the player. While it is probably one of the more generic ways to do it, it is efficient and sometimes fairly amusing.

The most rewarding approach to working with Pillars of Destiny is finding new ways to provide a return on player investments!

Currently been working on a new unique area and running into a graphic overhaul of the entire game. Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. I promise you I have still been working on things quietly in the dark!

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SMEARGLE SOLO CHALLENGEHARDCORE EDITIONTo vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory...Voted Best Game Designer 2011 on PC

I have pretty much everything mapped out except a few select locations that are unique and will require custom tilesets for, but that is where I will be going from here and then it the world is 100% complete, there will be a slight story revamp here soon and then work on the beta begins!

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SMEARGLE SOLO CHALLENGEHARDCORE EDITIONTo vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory...Voted Best Game Designer 2011 on PC

I don't really hang a lot in the progressing games subforum, but I really should.
I've completely missed your game up til now!

Keep up the great work! Get some more screenshots up and maybe a short video, so you can move to Games Showcase. This really deserves a lot more spotlight than it gets!

Thanks, they went through an update not too long ago, and I will have screens showing that some day.

I honestly forget this thread exists from time to time, and since most of my work for the past couple months has been in a sketch book, I have not been posting updates for anything. My deadline on my visual board is to have a showcase thread by the end of 2013. I am a one man army here so my updates are really not something that I can constantly post at this juncture.

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SMEARGLE SOLO CHALLENGEHARDCORE EDITIONTo vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory...Voted Best Game Designer 2011 on PC

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